The Yellow Huricane
by Kira31
Summary: Stricken by grief, the Third Hokage falters in a drastic moment in history. With the Fire Daimyo being swayed by Danzo's words, how will the world change when a snake takes control of the leaves?
1. Chapter 1

Shimura Danzo frowned as he walked through the halls of the Hokage Tower, he was upset at being called away from his work, reorganizing the entirety of Root after losing many of his subordinates to the recent Kyuubi attack was no easy task, but he knew the reasoning behind it. As a member of the Konoha Council, he had of course expected to join in the meeting to decide who would replace the Fourth Hokage, however Danzo merely viewed this as a waste of time. Ever since the last Great Shinobi World War the Fire Daimyo had been practically enamored with Sarutobi Hiruzen, and as such would readily accept any suggestion the man put forward if he pressed hard enough.

However, Danzo knew there would be repercussions if he did not at least attend and as such he set his face into it's usual expressionless-look and opened the door. Seeing the Fire Daimyo sitting at the head of the table, Danzo gave a deep bow of respect to Konoha's benefactor before turning to see who else had already taken their seats.

In four of the five seats of the Daimyo's right sat his personal advisers, their faces set into the perfect mix of superiority and haughtiness. They sat clothed in ornate kimonos that Danzo was sure being the height of courtly fashion, however all he could think was how badly the robes would restrict their movements in case of an attack.

Sitting at the end of the table was one of the Twelve Guardian Shinobi, a young man with dark brown hair held up by a bandanna with a dark short sleeve shirt tucked into a pair of black pants. Danzo himself was wary of the Twelve Guardian Shinobi, as he did not see the need for the Daimyo to have a group of shinobi loyal only to himself, if the man wished for the protection that shinobi offered, why not simply hire a guard detail from the very village he was financing?

Sitting opposite to the young man was the Jonin Commander, an older man who's visage was hidden behind a porcelain mask with a drawing of a hawk on it. The man was dressed in the regular Anbu uniform, with black clothing covered strategically with grey armor. As Danzo walked past him, he gave the man a nod of respect, glad to have another who would give anything for the village involved in choosing it's next leader. He mused that it was a shame that the man would be retiring soon, it would likely be the new Hokage's first task to choose the man's successor.

The next two he passed were his fellow council members, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, the two sipping casually from their cups of tea. Danzo gave a nod of acknowledgement to the two of them, one that they returned in kind, although the two would stand with him in most situations, Danzo knew that they were not able to go to some of the lengths that he himself readily accepted. Still, perhaps it would be here that they proved they were willing to step away from the pacifist ideology that had been dominant in Konoha recently, and help him begin the first steps to putting Konoha back on the track to dominance.

As Danzo took his seat, he turned his eyes to the right and nearly lost his balance at what he saw. Instead of the willful, confidant man who he had made his rival all those years ago, sitting beside him seemed to be an empty shell, sitting with his head bowed and hands in his lap. Danzo felt a pang of pity for the man, as despite how he may act he still considered Hiruzen as one of the closest people to him, having never been married himself he could only imagine the grief and depression that Hiruzen was feeling.

However this only fuelled Danzo's desire to see a proper ruler as the head of Konoha, preferably himself so he could ensure Konoha would be on the path to greatness while grooming his heir.

Danzo's attention returned to the matter at hand when the Daimyo clapped his hands and called the meeting to order. He spoke in a cultured tone and said "Well, firstly I would like to give my condolences to all of Konoha, both for the death of the Fourth Hokage and the loss of so many shinobi and civilians in the Kyuubi's rampage. But, for now at least, we must put aside our grief and decide on who will take up the mantle of Hokage in these trying times. Hiruzen-kun, I believe you would be the best to ask for a recommendation for the next Hokage, seeing how you are the only living Hokage we have to consult."

As all eyes turned to the depressed man, who slowly stood and said in a low, gravelly voice that spoke of the many hours of sobbing the man suffered, "Daimyo-sama I believe that at this point it would be best for me to return to the mantle of Hokage. During these times of strife the people need a well known and beloved figure to keep them focused on the future, and not the past." Without another word Hiruzen sat back down, his hands clasped in his lap once more.

The Daimyo looked a bit surprised at the notion, but soon had a smile on his face and said "Very well Hiruzen-kun, if that is what you believe to be best I will support it. Now, does the honored council have anything to add?"

Seeing this as his only chance Danzo raised his hand and stood when given approval by the Daimyo. Keeping his neutral expression on his face he said "Yes Daimyo-sama, I must dispute Hiruzen's point. While he is correct in that we do need a well known figure to rally the village, if Hiruzen would become that person he would instead polarize many of the shinobi in the village. Let us not forget the entire reason Hiruzen resigned in the first place was the unrest in the shinobi after the war ended with little to no change."

The Daimyo began to nod and rub his chin in thought, Danzo believed he finally had the chance to push forward with his own candidacy, when Homura raised his hand as well. When he was given leave to speak he said "That is true Danzo-kun, but who would be better than Hiruzen? If you are seeking to come forward yourself as the new Hokage, you would suffer the same pitfalls as Hiruzen. While Hiruzen is viewed as too soft by the militarists, you are viewed as too harsh by the more pacifistic elements in Konoha. Beside the fact that, unlike Hiruzen, you are not a house hold name in the entirety of the village, only among the shinobi forces. The civilians might view this as an attempt to remove what little power they already hold."

Danzo grit his teeth in rage at his fellow council members words, he had assumed the two of them would just blindly agree with him, it seems that would not be the case. He forced a breath out of his lungs to calm himself and said in his usual bored tone "Of course not, Homura-kun. In fact I was going to suggest Orochimaru-kun to take the honor of being Hokage. The only reason why he was passed over last time was Hiruzen's belief that Orochimaru-kun was falling onto a dark path. And since then we have not seen anything that would indicate that Orochimaru-kun is anything but a loyal Konoha shinobi."

The Daimyo seemed to be impressed by Danzo's proposal, and his fellow council members appeared to be placated as well. "Well," the Daimyo said as he turned his gaze to Hiruzen, "Shimura-kun does make a very good point. And it would be best that we would not have to make another choice in a few years. Hiruzen-kun? You know that I greatly value your opinion, is there anything that you want to add?"

Hiruzen raised his head and, for a moment, it appeared he would contest the point, that he would claim that Orochimaru had been acting suspicious and secretive lately, that he might be doing something incredibly monstrous. Instead, the old man simply lowered his head and said "No, Daimyo-sama. Will that be all?"

Under normal circumstances such disrespect from a vassal in all but name would lead to at least the offenders imprisoning and possibly death. In fact, the Daimyos advisors looked scandalized and the member of the Twelve Guardian Shinobi looked ready to attack the former Kage, despite his loss being all but assured, for the sleight against his masters honor. But, the Daimyo simply raised his hand to stall the young man, and said in a sympathetic tone "Yes, that will be all, I understand this is a hard time for all of you and I do not wish to hold you up any longer. Dismissed."

Hiruzen nodded and with a grateful look at the Daimyo quickly left the room, meanwhile Koharu turned to her fellow Council members and said "Well, I suppose I should go and give Orochimaru-sama the good news. Let us meet up tomorrow to discusses the details."

Danzo nodded his consent and quickly turned and left, although he still held his neutral expression, inside he was as close to giddy as he could get. Not only had he finally gotten the better of his life long rival, but there would finally be a Hokage closer to his line of thinking, one that would be willing to do whatever was necessary to see the village prosper.

* * *

**Twelve Years Later, Konoha General Hospital**

Uzumaki Naruto sat in the hospital room, waiting for his doctor to return. Currently he was sitting on the examination table, staring blankly at the wall in front of him. Normally Naruto would occupy himself by looking at the various tools and equipment, however after coming into this exact room once a month since he was five, the room had lost it's novelty long ago. Sometimes he would do last minute studying for a test, or practicing drawing on his chakra when he had first entered the academy.

However, today he was simply sitting still, doing nothing. If you had told anyone that the hyper blonde ball of energy even had the ability to sit around doing nothing for any amount of time, they would have looked at you like you had grown a second head. Indeed, under normal circumstances Naruto would at the very least be attempting to leave the room and wander the hospital, however today was special. Today was the general graduation for Naruto's class in the academy, and the last chance for the orphans under the village's patronage to graduate.

In order to allow an equal opportunity to all of the villages inhabitants to join the Shinobi Corps. the first Hokage had passed an act that gave any orphan who wished to enroll in the academy a stipend to survive off. This allowed many Shinobi to rise from the bottom rung of society and protect their homes. However, the act would only pay untill the general graduation, after that it would be up to the orphan themselves to pay their way.

Today was Naruto's last chance to become a Genin, and start his road to becoming Hokage. He had tried to not to go down to the wire, attempting to graduate early twice before, but had failed twice, much to the amusement of his classmates.

His musings were finished when the door suddenly opened and he quickly turned and gave the man who walked in a large smile. "Hey Doc, so everything look good?" He questioned as the silver haired man closed the door behind him.

"Everything seems to be in order Naruto-kun, and I told you, no need to be so formal, just call me Kabuto." Kabuto said as he gave a comforting smile to the young man. He opened the file he held in his hand and said "Your regeneration hasn't showed any signs of slowing down, which means you should live around twenty to forty years after others in your age group. Your chakra reserve is surprisingly still growing, which is odd even for an Uzumaki. I'd have to suggest doing more chakra control exercises so that you don't lose what little control you have."

Naruto heaved a giant moan as he flopped on his back and groaned out "Ah! But I already do it for an hour outside of the academy! And it's so boring!" Kabuto chuckled unapologeticly as he sent Naruto on his way. As the door closed on the room Kabuto looked over the psychology charts for Naruto with a frown on his face.

* * *

Naruto was sprinting through the streets of Konoha, cursing his ramen addiction on all the way. After the left the hospital he noticed a supermarket was having a huge sale on ramen and he hadn't been able to resist. After hauling the crate of ramen back to his apartment he had glanced at the clock and saw that class would start in five minutes. Now here he was, about to be late on the last day.

Turning the corner into the academy building Naruto poured all he had into his last mad dash, hearing the final bell start to ring as he threw open the classroom door and slid to victory. Shouting out "Made it!" as he came to a stop.

When Naruto opened his eyes he was met with many of his classmates either snickering or holding their heads in their hands, still not used to the hyperactive blonde's antics. Iruka-sensei was covering his mouth, desperately trying to hold in his laughter, meanwhile Mizuki-sensei was...less than pleased.

"Naruto!" he yelled, irritation lacing his voice, "One day, just one day where you don't disrupt the class and make a fool of yourself. Was that too much to ask?" Sighing as he dropped his head into his palms he weakly muttered "Never mind, just...just go take your seat."

Scratching the back of his head and looking the textbook definition of unabashed, Naruto stood and took the first empty seat available, next to his friend Shikamaru. Meanwhile, Iruka spoke up and said "Alright everyone, as you know this is the final day this class will be together. All that's left is the last part of the exam. All you have to do is a successful Kawamari no jutsu, Henge no jutsu, and finally make three successful clones with the Bushin no jutsu. Any questions?" Seeing no hands go up, many of the students either being too nervous or too confident to have anything to ask."Alright, then we will be going in alphabetic order, first up will be, Abumi Zaku-kun."

With a short gesture the two instructors walked to the examination room, the rowdy twelve year old following after them with a confident smirk on his face. Meanwhile the rest of the students busied themselves with various things, whether it being the last bit of gossip they could get in, or last minute practice.

Naruto was sitting in his seat, legs crossed beneath him and eyes closed. He had been told by Kabuto that whenever he was feeling overtly nervous or stressed, that he should relax and attempt to meditate. He hadn't seen any of his classmates doing this, so he didn't try all too often, but this was a special case. And thus with a deep breath he began to clear his mind of all distractions, trying to find his "center" as Kabuto put it.

* * *

**Unknown**

With a start Naruto bolted up from laying down, spitting out a mouthful of water that had flowed into his wide open mouth. After sputtering for a moment Naruto's surroundings became apparent to him, the dark, red tinted hall that he was in, with pipes covering the walls and a layer of standing water on the floor. Deciding he must have dozed off and was now in some kind of stress fueled dream, Naruto decided to walk forward until he found something of interest.

After wandering for what seemed like hours, at least by Naruto's gauge time, he suddenly heard a low rumbling. Deciding to see what was making the noise he sped up, going from a calm walk to a hurried jog, finally ending in a full on sprint. As he kept going down the seemingly never ending hallway he began to hear the noise clearer, and oddly enough it sounded like it was speaking, saying "...ser...co...er"

Before he could make out the noise any further he suddenly felt as if the room was turning on it's side and a bright light appeared.

* * *

**Konoha Shinobi Academy**

Naruto snapped his eyes open as he fell off his chair, Kiba snickering reaching his ear as he managed to get his hands underneath himself and spring up onto his feet. After he had regained contact with the earth, he turned his glare onto Kiba, who only innocently held his hands up and said "Sensei said it's your turn, I was just making sure you didn't fail without even getting a chance."

Feeling his cheeks color with embarrassment Naruto quickly turned and stalked out the door, tuning out Kiba's guaffs of amusement as best he could. After entering the examination room and seeing the supportive smile of Iruka-sensei and the small smirk of approval on Mizuki-sensei's face he was sure this would be the time he surpassed the odds.

Deciding to not let his nerves even have a chance he quickly performed the handsigns for the Kawamari no jutsu, and without hesitation switched with the chair in the middle of the room. Seeing the proud looks on his teachers faces he went onto the Henge no jutsu and did his best impression of the fifth Hokage yet, even matching the mans purple tribal markings.

Taking a deep breath Naruto slowed down and carefully created the necessary handsigns, making sure to not even be a millimeter off point, at the same time he used all of the control he had in order to tame his massive reserves and shape his chakra into the necessary form. As he finished he closed his eyes and activated the jutsu, not being able to look. When he did finally open his eyes what he saw had his jaw hanging wide open.

To his left was a perfect clone, down to the last detail, and had the same expression as the original. To his right was one clone that appeared to be him, if he had been sick for a few weeks, with pale skin and a slouched demeanor. And next to that one was a clone that looked like it had been subjected to every disease known to man, and still had more waiting, with his skin being grey and his legs having given out beneath him.

Naruto's eyes turned to his teachers and perked up just in time to hear Iruka-sensei say "...on, he made two O.K. clones, it seems to be good enough for me."

However Mizuki just shook his head and said "No Iruka, the rules clearly state that the student must make three passable clones, right now I only see one passable clone, and one that I might be lenient on. The third is not passable at all. I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but you won't be graduating this time." Both teachers gave the dejected boy a look of sympathy as he turned on his heel and walked out.

After all the students had been dismissed, to be congratulated or comforted by their parents and loved ones, Naruto sat on a tree swing and simply watched, envious of the support that every single one of his classmates had, every single one except himself. Before he could dwell further on his darker thoughts a shadow loomed over him, looking up he saw Iruka-sensei standing next to him.

Without introduction Iruka spoke, saying "I know he may seem harsh on you, but I think Mizuki has his reasons." At Naruto's questioning lruka explained "He sees himself in you, someone who has to work much harder than others for half the recognition. So, he's harder on you so you keep trying to improve yourself. And it's because of that, that he and I have agreed to give you the secondary test. All you have to do is two difficult tasks, but I'm sure you can do them Naruto-kun."


	2. Apologies

Alright so first off this is not an update, that is still in the works, this is a public apology for my terrible blunder. It has recently been brought to my attention that the first chapter that was posted had become unreadable, during some part of the reformatting that happened I assume. This was allowed to happen by my mistake of not double, and even triple checking the final document that I posted, and allowing that to occur. So, from the bottom of my heart I wish to apologize to all readers who were as repulsed by this mistake as I am, I am deeply sorry once again for allowing this to happen and will now quintuple check every single document that I upload. I have since uploaded a readable version of the first chapter.

So as always, stay classy internet.


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